P2P service Venmo comes out of beta

March 20, 2012

NY Times Bits blog is reporting Venmo, a mobile payment start-up offering P2P services, has finally emerged from an extended period of beta testing. The company opened its services to the public today.

Launched in 2009, Venmo originally released a version of its app in an invitation-only beta a couple of years ago. Now the company has worked out the bugs and made the app available to anyone. The app is designed to let users send small amounts of money using text messages. It also connects into Facebook so users can track payments.

"We were waiting to perfect the payment experience before releasing it to the public," Venmo co-founder Iqram Magdon-Ismai told the Times. "We feel good about opening up now. We’re anticipating lots of volume and we have the right team in place to handle that."

The service is free to download and free to use at the moment. The plan is to begin charging for services delivered to merchants at some point.

According to CrunchBase, Venmo has raised about $1.2 million in venture backing, but Venmo didn't provide any details on financing or investors to the Times.